The Cuckoo's Calling - Picking up where Cracker left off or something more?

‘The Cuckoo’s calling’ published under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith earlier this year has been recently revealed as an attempt by JK Rowling to invade Conan Doyle’s and Blyton’s minefield. It doesn’t need to be said that Rowling’s novels of a Wizard battling with puberty and magical demons didn’t impress the critics but captured the nation. Although, with many describing ‘The Casual Vacancy’ as inhibiting a Dickens style. Could ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’ and the afromentioned fulfil Rowling’s ambition for critical success?

‘The Cuckoo’s Calling’ opens with the literal descent of Lula Landry from a London balcony with a hint of it being entwined with her fall from grace. Many immediately see this death as a cocaine fuelled suicide but the questioning of her adopted brother (John Bristow) paves the way for Coroman Strike to act as Modern Sherlock Holmes upon the streets of Soho. The protagonist of Strike comes across as the most intriguing character through his not so hidden vices of his alcoholism, his obesity and his failed marriage surrounding as much of the novel as Landry’s death.
The construction of a middle aged detective with many vices resembled for myself another detective nicknamed ‘Fitz’ who was often seen suffering from his own gambling addiction hundred and fifty miles North of London. Despite holding a similar protagonist to Jimmy McGovern, the degree of suspense does never really reach the heights of programmes like ‘Cracker’ or Conan Doyle’s ‘A Study in Scarlet.’
The equivalent of Fitz’s Panhandle and Holmes’s Watson for Strike is in the character of Robin Ellacot who’s temptation to sleep with the maverick sustains the reader’s intrigue but is fairly conventional of detective fiction. Whilst her dialogue only centering around her engagement with a character called Matthew sparks an impulse to turn the pages for more detail into Strike, the overweight Holmes.

It may seem that I’ve literally placed all copies of ‘Cuckoo’ on every casual reader’s barbeque with the negativity fuelling the flames. Although where’ Cuckoo’ lacks in suspense, it makes up for in reminding us of the media’s determination to sell their souls for a scandalous press story. It wouldn’t be too far to suggest that Landry resembles one of Eve’s women who have given into temptation and in modern times consequently paid the price by acting as a scapegoat for the ‘Daily Mirror’ and the ‘Star.’

This isn’t surprising through Rowling appearing in the recent Leverson enquiry as a witness herself.
Aswell as the subject matter, Rowling moulds this together with frequent references to female tragedies from the description of Winehouse’s soulful melodies playing in Strikes’s Camden bar or her comparing Strike’s dash from the press as similar to that of Princess Diana’s final limousine journey. Just like Landry, there have been many women have given into temptation from Janis Joplin to Nico and Rowling does present the interesting argument that they weren’t only suffering from their own addictions but the most destructive weaponry of the media.

Rowling’s latest addition is a refreshing addition to the Bestsellers at the Service Station with raising eyebrows to how powerful the barracks of the media are. Upon it’s release, I will be purchasing the sequel for a slice of escapism in a summer read. But the detective side of the novel will never keep you on the edge of your deckchair, to the extent of fairly recent detective writers such as Stieg Larsson.

Verdict – 7/10